Huawei Ascend P6 first look pictures and video

First impressions aren't everything, but feeling good out of the box doesn't hurt.

It's been a little while since Huawei officially unveiled the Ascend P6 in London, but we've finally got our hands on the new ultra-slim device for a proper look. Just in case you need a little refresher, the Ascend P6 is fantastically thin at just 6.18mm, and still packs in many high-end features you'd expect in a phone today. The P6 has a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, 4.7-inch 720p display, 2000mAh battery and is powered by Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

All of that is wrapped up in a nice metal and plastic body that looks great to our eyes and feels nice in the hand by our first impressions. Stick around after the break for a more detailed look at the Ascend P6 in pictures and video.

After spending a little time with the Ascend P6 getting it set up with our accounts and apps, we have to say we're quite impressed with the build quality. This is a big step up over some of its offerings last year, and even over what it announced just at CES in January. It is incredibly thin and relatively light as well, without feeling cheap or flimsy and the use of different metals along with small plastic accents is quite nice. The display also looks crisp and bright despite only being 720p (although the resolution is quite acceptable at 4.7-inches), and the device is overall refreshingly small compared to the ballooning sizes of recent handsets

While it's going to take a while to get ahold of the software, it's clear that Huawei is continuing its efforts to have a strong design and brand identity with its customizations. Most things have been changed aesthetically — with a new launcher, skinned settings and bundled apps — on the Ascend P6, but still function much the same as you would expect with stock Jelly Bean. We can tell already that this stock launcher probably isn't going to work for us, but that's easily remedied.

Now that we have our hands on the device, we'll be giving the Huawei Ascend P6 the complete review treatment over the coming week, so look forward to our in-depth coverage as it is released. For now, take a look at the hands-on video above and pictures below to get a good impression of what to expect from this handset.

Nice looking hardware and don't care about the UI since Nova launcher would fix all those issues and comes with its own app drawer anyway. My only complaints are wierd/unorthodox placement of microUSB port and headphone jack, id lose that jack cover in a few secs.

It's a really nice phone but I'm totally spoiled to removable batteries. I can't remember the last time I had to plug my GS3 in to charge it. I love being able to go from 0 to 100 battery in less than 1 minute.

This comment couldn't be ignorant. There are plenty of companies outside of China, in the US for instance that also have shady business practices. You just never hear about it. US bashes on China through the media, same goes for the Chinese. Why don't you look at Nike, Oregon based company using child labor in Vietnam, Indonesia and China.

Your ignorant statement can also be traced to Apple, California based, using labor from Foxconn which has terrible working conditions. But Apple clearly doesn't care. I'm sure Google and Microsoft have had their fair share of illegal or poor business practices as well that you don't hear about. E.G Google spying on other countries.

I think the person was specifically talking about theft of IP from U.S. companies.
Do a search on Huawei IP theft and add either Motorola or Cisco.
Also:
"The fact that Ren Zhengfei, the company’s chief executive, was an engineer in China’s People’s Liberation Army before founding Huawei, and that the firm’s ownership structure is not transparent, have created lingering suspicions that Huawei might be an agent for the Chinese military."

Got one from the Philippines when I was there couple weeks ago. Loving it so far. Works great on my T-Mobile $30 plan. Feels great in my hand, looks gorgeous, and battery life is decent. I'm having problem with Google + earlier, but a quick upgrade to B107 and everything works dandy.

I don't find myself using a phone while plugged in all that often, but when I do the top charging port doesn't seem to bother me... it's never in the way of your hand like bottom and side-mounted ones are. Why is the top port bothersome?

Nice looking hardware. First thing I would do is change that launcher. Will that phone be available for the US Market? Hopefully they will add some internal memory instead of the pathetic standard 16. That to me is the most irritating spec on the high end smartphones of Android today. Just freaken ridiculous. Someday I hope they learn to sell phones like Apple, all versions to all Carriers all at once. The only way. These US Carriers are just too damn greedy and the phone manufacturers should come together and put an end to this bull.

It's necessary because of the metal casing. Though I think they could have done with a plastic chin on the top as well and put the radios there, or went the HTC route. Why reinvent the wheel?
I like what they did, the device is great save for the positioning of the headphone jack and mic.